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Endless Stair Sculpture: Escher IRL

The Endless Stair makes it seem like you’re stepping into an Escher painting: it never ends. The temporary sculpture was a project of dRMM Architects, where they basically combined fifteen interlocking stairways to create the 25-foot-tall sculpture.

If you’re still thinking M. C. Escher, then you’re right on target, because the piece was inspired by the well-known Dutch artist.

dRMM’s Alex de Rijke explains: “Escher’s inspiration was something that drove us to make a staircase that was not possible necessarily to understand as a simple linear composition. It’s something that was complex, that was interlocking, and perhaps spatially impossible.”

He adds: “On stairs, people interact, they pass each other, they are always interesting places with spatial and social potential. We thought a staircase would be a good vehicle for exploring structure, space, and making a sculpture. Stairs are sculpture’s gift to architecture.”

The Endless Stair is currently on display in front of London’s Tate Modern, where visitors can walk up and down it’s intertwined steps daily from 9 in the morning until dusk.